


Legacy of the Crests

by Mathais



Series: Legacy [2]
Category: Digimon Adventure, Digimon Adventure Zero Two | Digimon Adventure 02, Digimon Frontier
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-04-11
Updated: 2007-04-11
Packaged: 2017-10-31 21:49:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/348698
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mathais/pseuds/Mathais
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Chosen of the Crests came to represent much more than their human selves.  And, as they grew older, the line where the human began and the power ended became that much harder to define.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Legacy of the Crests

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings: Adventure/02 Spoilers
> 
> Disclaimer: The characters, places, creatures, elements, etc. of the Digimon Multiverse doesn't not belong to me.

Courage burns with the blaze of fire.

Friendship endures with the solidarity of ice and prospers with the snap of lightning.

Love encompasses with the immortality of wind.

Purity blooms with the delicacy of nature.

Knowledge grows with the boom of thunder and survives with the stability of earth.

Sincerity strengthens with the clarity of water.

Hope brightens with the pierce of radiance.

Light supports with the warmth of shine.

Kindness saves with the help of the unlikely.

Miracles comes with the surprise of chaos.

And Fate watches with the loneliness of the forgotten.

The first eight were the truths that the Chosen held in their hearts even as Apocalymon fell to their strength and their conviction.  They never forgot them and even added Kindness and Miracles as they amended Friendship and Knowledge, though they gained new friends, new allies, and new believers.  And they continued to believe as the light in their hearts joined with those in the two worlds and banished the recurring threat which was Vamdemon.

But the final one, the truth of Fate, was for one alone.

Power thrummed through their veins as they again and again called upon these powers, these truths, to aid them in whatever battle came their way.  For, as the first eight learned from their original match with the most evil and corrupt digimon and passed on to the next generation, the power of the Crests came from within the heart, within the soul.  It allowed them to reach farther, higher, and deeper each time they touched the insurmountable energy that was the Crest in its purest manifestation.  And with each passing moment, they became closer and closer to their Digimon partners.

It was Takeru who could finally put to words what they felt in the end.  Gazing up into the rising sun, the dawning age which was the symbol of Hope, he felt an intimate connection with the emotions brought upon by the light.

Delving deeper into himself, he looked at the soul of Hope which was much closer than it had been all those years ago when it needed the physical manifestation of the Crest to run its power through him.  It was even closer than when all he needed to draw out its power was the Digimental of Hope.  And it was much closer than when its power had burst through his body to finally defeat BelialVamdemon.  Looking past the soul of Hope, he smiled at the being waiting at the other side.

Patamon smiled back at him with Poyomon, Tokomon, Pegasmon, Manbomon, Angemon, Shakkoumon, HolyAngemon, and Seraphimon all silhouetted behind the Mammal digimon.

And, as one, they touched the glowing, piercing luminance that was Hope in its rawest, strongest form.

When he came to, Takeru was standing in front of the temple of Qinglongmon, the Azure Dragon of the East, one of the Four Holy Beasts.  Except it wasn't really Takeru standing there.  As Gennai beheld the golden being that stood before him, he suddenly smiled and knew, and, as he stepped forward, he greeted the newcomer—Hope.

Takeru, Patamon, and Hope, but mainly Takeru, answered the greeting.

No longer was Takeru simply a boy, simply a Chosen Child, simply a person, simply someone.

He was Hope itself, the sentience of the Crest and all it represented.  He was branded by Hope, but Hope had only achieved true power by combining with him, unlocking it from the bonds it had been held by.

He was Takeru, Patamon, and Hope all together and joined into one being, far superior to the sum of its parts.

And, as he held out his hand, Gennai took it, and he felt a tingle of power that reminded him of someone... a person—people—he hadn't seen in a long time.  Power thrummed through Hope's veins; he simply radiated it as the abstract Crest given true life.

But such as a truth that even the Chosen weren't ready for.  Hope acquiesced, and he split back into Takeru and Patamon for the time being—but Hope remained within the pair, no longer a separate being.

But when Takeru returned to the Human World, he couldn't hide the truth that shone in his eyes.  He couldn't hide the certainty which rolled across his body, firmed his stance, and tensed his muscles.  He couldn't hide, above all, the power that was contained in his lithe, toned body—the power which was one of the fundamental cornerstones of the Digital World.

You could never hide Hope for long—it glew too brightly even in the presence of the sun, piercing past all else.

His girlfriend and lover, Hikari, could see it inside of him when he returned, could sense it beyond his attempts to mask the ethereal might he now held in his hands.

For his light touched hers—and she responded.

Power thrummed though her body as Light itself claimed her and she claimed it.  Tailmon could only stand by her side as Light absorbed her, merging with her, into one being.  Hikari, as Light, stood before Takeru now, a goddess who healed, an angel who protected.  Her pink warmth mixed with his golden radiance, and Hope emerged once more.  As Hope gazed upon Light, and Light beheld Hope—neither spoke a word.

They both vanished to Qinglongmon's temple, saying their goodbyes to their lives in the Human World as Takeru Takaishi, Patamon, Hikari Yagami, and Tailmon.  The truth that they found was too great to be ignored, and they could not live as they were.

Their disappearance was met with confusion and shock, but there was an undercurrent of understanding among the core Chosen.

When Taichi and Yamato, Agumon and Gabumon, disappeared, it was assumed that they were looking for their missing siblings.

When Mimi, Palmon, Sora, Piyomon, Koushirou, Tentomon, Jou, and Gomamon suddenly vanished one morning, it was thought that they were following their fellow Chosen.

When Daisuke, V-mon, Miyako, Hawkmon, Iori, and Armadimon left, it was understood that there was something else going on.

Before Ken could vanish, however, he had one last visit.

From a face he'd never seen before, from a person whom he never met.

Blonde hair and blue eyes was his first impression, as well as American English-accented Japanese.  Ken wondered what this other man would say, what he represented in the grand scheme of things.  Because he was important—his heart told him that.

The man wove a tale of dreams, where two opposites fought in a stalemate, one side forever fleeing the others' menacing reach.  And he spoke of five who came to the runner's aid, dispelling the darkness for good and converting it to light.

And, as blue eyes stared deep into violet, Ken asked the question burning on the tip of his tongue.

"Are you the golden truth we've forgotten?"

The teenager smiled sadly, giving no answer as he turned and walked away.

When Ken and Wormmon became Kindness, he gathered with the other Crests in Qinglongmon's temple, seeing his peers for the first time in many months.

As he hugged Miyako, Pure Love, reunited with his lover, he couldn't help but look at Daisuke, Friendly Courage, from where he stood with Iori, Sincere Knowledge, for that golden sparkle.  But he couldn't see it, too buried the Chosen was in Courage and Friendship.

The twelve Chosen stood together for once in a long time, beholding each other in their new forms.  They touched hands once, and the Firewall appeared again from where it once failed, its purpose fulfilled by the Chosen.  Now, again, the Firewall would protect all the worlds from the harm which existed even beyond their own, a reality which they glimpsed as they ascended from mere humans.

Each of them then split back into their human and digimon selves, only to recombine in the direst of needs, but the humans no longer identified themselves by their human names but by their Crests.

Kindness and Wormmon found home in Qinglongmon's temple, and he was mostly content there, especially since he could easily head to either Xuanwumon's or Zhuqiaomon's temples, where Pure Love lived, depending on which Crest she was following at the time.

Hope, Light, Courage, and Love were lucky—they managed to live together, as their Crests followed the same Holy Beast.  The rest lived apart, but none of them complained—their duties to their powers stood above their own personal lives.  Even if Friendship and Faith found a lot of time to disappear from their temples, and Purity and Knowledge _inside_ them.  Friendly Courage and Faithful Knowledge were a little more discreet than their elders, though not by much.

But Kindness felt a bit restless.  The last visitor he had while he was purely Ken weighted down on his mind.  Could he truly have been?

Using the impressive powers granted by his fusion with the soul of Kindness and bolstered by Wormmon's unwavering faith, he attempted to follow his heart and teleport himself to the place where he knew he had to be.

Only to find himself ringing with pain afterward, trembling on the ground.

Gennai found him a moment later, and the Guardian only sighed as Kindness righted himself.  The man asked Kindness what his purpose was, and the Chosen answered truthfully.

He was looking for the golden radiance.

And Gennai smiled at him, a faint light appearing in his eyes.  Bowing to the Crest Chosen, he offered to take him to the golden radiance.  There was no choice for Kindness as he accepted.

Kindness appeared in a temple which he had never seen before, Gennai beside him.  The mysterious man whom Ken identified as the golden truth smiled at him as he entered the temple.

Miraculous Fate greeted Kindness and introduced himself as such, adding that his former forms were Wallace, Terriermon, Lopmon, and Fate.

And Kindness replied that he realized this—and that he knew the only reason he bore Miracles was because Daisuke rejected it in favor of Courage and Friendship.  Miraculous Fate did not reply, though the golden light in blue eyes dimmed in response.

He then introduced to Kindness the fifth god, Huanglongmon, the Guardian of the Center.  In reverence for the God Beast whose power was as strong as the other four combined, he kneeled in respect.  The God Beast rumbled for him to stand and asked of him only one thing.

Though the golden truth was to be revealed to those who remembered, could he help ease the burden of solitude?

Kindness knew, again, that there was no real question.  Smiling at the lonesome boy who used to be Wallace, he agreed.

As Miraculous Fate watched Kindness leave, he turned to Huanglongmon and asked him why he had done that.  For another person, even another Crest, to realize the existence of the hidden Guardian was a gamble.

Huanglongmon only mysteriously replied that solitude was not something he would let any of his charges suffer through.  The golden dragon's six eyes closed in memory of another boy who watched over the lands by himself in order to ease his friends' burden.  Even the solidarity of Ice and Darkness could not help the pain of that one.

In due time, Huanglongmon replied, would he understand the reason.

The one who used to be Wallace only shook his head.

But, as he watched over the World of the Center, a blooming paradise that contained peace and harmony, whose skies were filled with all the worlds—that of the North, South, East, West, and the Darkness, and the Dreams—he thought that eternity might be a fit easier to bear with someone other than Gennai.

And so the Twelve Crest Chosen stood watch over their lands, their Digital World, as they protected and supported it from all threats.

And the hidden Thirteenth watched them all with his own pain, only alleviated when Kindness visited.

Gennai watched those who had inherited courage, and thought that, maybe, the five would be proud of their successors.

Maybe, in the future, those five could leave this land in the hands of the Crests, and let the Spirits rise once more.

But now, Gennai smiled to himself, it was the time for the Crests to flourish.  And he was proud to be watching them all.


End file.
